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Michael Whelan (poet)
by George J. Dance 'Michael Whelan '(April 27, 1858 - May 10, 1937) was a Canadian poet known as the "Poet of Renous".Whelan, Michael, Miramichi Branch, New Brunswick Genealogical Society, Web, June 13, 2012. LIfe Whelan was born in Renous, New Brunswick, the 2nd youngest child of Mary (Keary) a woman of Irish origin born in New Brunswick, and William Whelan, a native of Ireland. The Whelan family, of which 8 children survived to adulthood, were subsistence famers and laborers. Their original family home was a modest log dwelling opposite an island in the Renous River known as Whelan's Island, just below the confluence of the Renous and Dungarvon rivers. At a later date, this locality was officially named Grainfield. Whelan wanted to be a schoolteacher, but never acquired the necessary qualifications (although he taught for some time on a local license); he worked winters as a bookkeeper for a lumber company, and did odd jobs in the summer. Whelan's earliest published verse appeared in local papers, the Newcastle Union (which published his debut poetry collection in 1895) and the Chatham Gazette. He went on to write an estimated 250 poems, published in at least 18 chapbooks. He also wrote prose pieces for the Union Advocate (some of which appeared in his last book, Timely Topics). Whelan never married. He is said to have been in love with a Margaret Singleton, and her early death upset him deeply. "“Michael never drank before that,” said one contemporary, “and he never stopped afterwards.”W.D. Hamilton on Michael Whelan, Music to the Ears, Heritage Branch, Province of New Brunswick, VirtualMuseum.ca, Web, June 13, 2012. Hamilton reports that Whelan “was viewed as an almost tragic figure on the Miramichi. A warm, gentle, intelligent man, he kept up a cheerful facade despite an addiction to alcohol and an ever increasing impoverishment which saw him spend the closing years of his life in the county almshouse.” He died in Chatham, New Brunswiek, and was buried in St. Michael's Cemetery in an unmarked pauper's grave. Writing The New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia says that "Whelan wrote best about his beloved Miramichi region and its people. Many of his poems are memorial tributes to friends, acquaintances, politicians, or historical figures. He also wrote fervently about war, particularly World War I, and, as a devout Roman Catholic, he wrote about God and leading figures in the church, namely popes and bishops. Some of his religious poems deploy prayer-like incantations. Many poems in each of the categories above illustrate his love of Canada, and a few show that he did not neglect his Irish roots." Whelan's poetry celebrated the land and folklore of the Miramichi region. His most well-known work is his song about "The Dungarvon Whooper," which commemorates a 19th-century murder at a backwoods lumber camp. Supposedly the victim's ghost continued to plague the area with hideous screams through the night, which made lumberers avoid it as cursed. While some suggest that the tale was inspired by screech owls or panther howls, at the time it was taken so seriously that a Catholic priest from Renous performed an exorcism at the campsite.Alison Hughes, "Eastern Gothic," Ghost Stories, Web, June 13, 2012. Whelan published his song in a local newspaper in 1912, and issued it in book form in 1928. "'The Dungarvon Whooper’ became the most famous of Michael’s songs," writes historian W.D. Hamilton, "after it had been admitted into the repertoire of the Miramichi folksingers of the time.” In his 1987 monograph "Michael Whelan: Poet of the Renous", Hamilton calls Whelan "a writer of exceedingly serious verse of a religio-patriotic kind — in praise of God, the Catholic Church, Great Britain, Ireland, the United States, Canada, the Miramichi area in general, and the Renous in particular.” Recognition Thomas Whelan (no relation), who had met the poet in 1930, began a campaign in 1980 to raise funds for a tombstone for his grave. That was dedicated in September 1981in a ceremony at St. Michael's, at which Whelan was hailed as the "Bard of Renous," who successfully recorded the life and songs of the region, and "lived on in the hearts of posterity." Whelan is also reportedly cemmemorated at Whooper Spring, the backwoods campsite where the Dungarvon Whooper murder allegedly took place. In the words of Roy McCrae, a resident of nearby Blackville: "It's an old mud road back of the Dungarvon for ten mile, or so, and then you have to turn off to an old woods road. Then you go so far and you have to walk ... a piece further, maybe half a mile, through a kind of a woods trail. There at the site you're at Whooper Spring they call it, an old logging camp site. There was kind of a cleared place and still is. Nothing ever grew there much. And there's a stand with a plaque with the Dungarvon Whooper song that Michael Whelan wrote back years ago under glass for anyone to read." At the Canada's Irish Festival in 1989, held on the Miramichi, Farrell McCarthy (the founding president of the Irish Canadian Cultural Association of New Brunswick), declared that “our cultural life could be enhanced by making at least one person of our Irish cultural heritage better known, and that person is Michael Whelan.” 1990 saw the publication of Michael Whelan: Folk Poet of the Renous, edited by Michael O. Nolan, which collected more than 100 of Whelan's poems for a modern audience. Reviewing the book, Fred Cogswell lauded its publication for “resurrecting the large and important area of New Brunswick social life that Whelan’s poetry represents.” Publications *''Poems and Songs. Newcastle, NB: The Union Advocate, 1895. *''Queen of the North, and forty other songs and sonnets. Newcastle, NB: The Union Advocate, 1914. *''The Pioneers, and other poems''. Newcastle, NB: The Union Advocate, 1917. *''Songs of the World War''. N.p.: n.p., 1919. *''The Great Miramichi Fire - 1825, The Polar Heroes, and fourteen other poems''. Chatham, NB: The Gazette Office, 1921. (NBM, OML, UNB, LL) *''The Call of Christ, and other poems''. Chatham: The Gazette Office, 1922. *''“In Memoriam”: Men and women of Miramichi, N.B.'' N.p.: n.p., 1923. *''The Maid of Miramichi, and other poems''. Chatham, NB: The Gazette Press, 1924. *''The Great Miramichi Fire of 1825 in Story and Song, with other poems''. N.p.:n.p., 1925. *''The Sacred Silence, and other songs''. Chatham: The Gazette Press, 1925. *''The Garden of God, and other poems''. N.p.:n.p., 1926. *''Canada: Queen of the North: The all Canadian edition for the 60th anniversary of Confederation''. Chatham, NB: The Gazette Press, 1927. *''The Dungarvon Whooper, and other songs of the Miramichi''. N.p.:n.p., 1928. *''Some Heroes of History''. N.p.:n.p., 1928. *''Piracy, Prophesy, Politics and Poetry''. Chatham, NB: The Gazette Press, 1929. *''Slogans, and other songs''. N.p.:n.p., 1930. *''The Book Beautiful''. Chatham, NB: The Gazette Press, 1930. *''Timely Topics''. Renous River.:n.p., May 1932. Reprint, N.p.:n.p., September 1932. *''Michael Whelan: Folk poet of Renous river'' (edited by Michael O. Nowlan). Fredericton: New Ireland Press, 1990. Bibliographical information courtesy St. Thomas University.Michael O. Nowlan, Michael Whelan, New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia, St. Thomas University, STU.ca, Web, June 12, 2012. Poems by Michael Whelan *The Dungarvon Whooper See also *New Brunswick poets *List of Canadian poets References External links ;Books *''Michael Whelan: Folk poet of Renous river'' at Amazon.ca ;About *Whelan, Michael, Miramichi Branch, New Brunswick Genealogical Society *Michael Whelan in the New Brunswick Literary Encyclopedia. *Music to the Ear: W.D. Hamilton on Michael Whelan, Heritage Branch, Province of New Brunswick Category:Canadian poets Category:Writers from New Brunswick Category:People from Miramichi, New Brunswick Category:1937 deaths Category:1858 births Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Folk poets Category:Poets Category:Canadian authors Category:New Brunswick poets